Good morning and welcome to Monday August 20th. It’s a beautiful sunny morning here on Ledgestone drive in West Fort Worth and the day promises to hold great things. It’s a fun day around the Potter house as today is the first ‘official’ day of work for me. I’ve got an exciting week planned with a lot of it focused on reading, comprehension and memorization of our curriculum. I’m so excited to be involved with an organization that focuses on teaching leadership skills and workplace coping skills that utilize high levels of integrity and honesty to college students. This is something our world so desperately needs today, young servant leaders with high levels of integrity.
Last night Marge & I took the opportunity to watch a movie which we rarely do. When we do we try to watch something with a positive message. We watched Chariots of Fire, the 1981 Best Picture winner about Eric Liddell, the Olympic gold medalist that was a Christian missionary in China. It’s a great inspirational story and it has one my favorite lines in any movie. He has such a passion for running and when asked why He runs he replies, “God made me fast. When I run I feel His pleasure.” Man, I love that statement. No truer thing can be said of when we are working in the gifts and passions that God has given us. Then and only then will we be the most successful and have the most impact for for Him.
Well, yesterday I finished the book of John so this morning I started the book of Acts. (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts) Side note: as I start a new chapter in God’s Word today it hit me that I was also starting a new chapter in life with this job. What a message. Now some might say this is just coincidence but to me there is no coincidences when you follow Christ. Think of the odds here. I started the book of Matthew in June and have been reading for 5 minutes every day since, covering 4 books. I started interviewing for this job in June as well. The day I start the job, I also start the book of God’s Word that chronicles God’s servants giving out His Word to the world. I have no doubt this is God speaking to me that I am where He wants me to be. It’s a God whisper. Listen for God and you’ll hear Him.
The book of Acts could also be called Luke 2 as its Luke’s second book in the New Testament. I use an ESV (English Standard Version) and the full title in my bible reads “The Acts of the Apostles.” As you guessed, this book is primarily about what the apostles were up to after the ascension of Jesus. It chronicles the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the start of the church through the apostle’s missionary journeys. It primarily focuses on 2 men, Peter in the beginning and Paul in the later chapters.
The first of Acts launches right into the ascension of Jesus back into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father. The disciples are gathered at the Mount of Olives with Jesus and right before He ascends He gives them this last command. Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the Earth.” What a commission. You will go everywhere and tell everybody about me. By the way, that’s still His command for our lives today.
So why mention those specific places? Am I to fly over to Samaria today and tell people about Jesus? Jerusalem is symbolic of our hometown. Tell people right where you live. Judea was like the county, that is symbolic of outside your city. Tell people in your state. Samaria was the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’ The people we don’t associate with or necessarily get along with. Yes, Jesus asks us to get out of our comfort zone, out of our normal social circles and tell them about Him as well. Tell people you don’t normally hang out with. And of course to the end of the Earth means exactly that. We are called to blanket this planet and be ‘witnesses’ for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Question. So what if I can’t go to China and witness for Jesus? Can I just give $50 to missions and stay home and watch TV? Jesus isn’t letting us off that easy, this is not a verse only concerning foreign missions here. What about your hometown, what about your county, your state, your nation? Jesus is crystal clear here. Wherever you are, witness for Him. The tough questions…How much are YOU involved? What is YOUR witness for Christ?
Just as He finished saying this He ascends into Heaven in a glorious scene. Acts 1:9, “and when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.” Wow, to be there that day and see Jesus lifted up and taken back to His home. This planet was not His home. He only came here to complete a job. He came here to die for our sins and be raised again in triumph over the death of sin. He went home. One day those that call Him Lord will be able to do the same thing. Oh, what a glorious day!
Now here’s a crazy Dan side-thought for you. As I read through God’s Word and witness all the crazy awesome miracles He does I can’t help but think about the special effects it would take to reproduce them in a movie. Think about it, God does some stuff in His Word that even Hollywood would struggle to pull off today. The parting of an entire Sea. The instant destruction of 2 entire cities by fire. A huge boat full of animals. A talking donkey. Jesus ascending on a cloud. What an awesome God we serve, I can’t imagine seeing some of this stuff!
Anyway, back on track. In the last part of chapter 1 we have the disciples that are now down to 11 because Judas killed himself after betraying Jesus. So Peter addresses the group and basically says, “we gotta replace Judas and vote in another guy.” Now this is before they had received the Holy Spirit and Jesus is no longer with them, so who is leading & guiding their decision? The prerequisite to be an apostle was that the man had to have seen Jesus. They picked out 2 candidates, Matthias, and a guy with three names, Joseph or Barsabbas or Justus. They prayed and then cast lots to see who got the spot. By the way, casting lots would have probably been them flipping a coin. Matthias won the coin toss.
Now this is curious because this is the only time Matthias is ever mentioned in God’s Word. We never hear anything else about him or his ministry. In my opinion it seems they jumped the gun and this was not God’s choice. It seems to me like God made His choice in a mighty way a little later when He converted a persecutor of Christians as he was walking to Damascus. It seems to me like God’s choice for the 12th apostle penned 14 of the 27 books in the New Testament. Even Paul seemed to say this in Galatians 1:1, “I Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, and God the father, who raised him from the dead.” Regardless, I think the lesson here is firmly in the decision and the process they used to arrive at it. Without God, through His Holy Spirit we are completely without guidance.
I’m so thankful for the tremendous gift of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we are nothing. As born again believers we have the spirit of God living within us. What a gift.
Tomorrow we will actually see the arrival of the Holy Spirit. As the 60’s Batman TV show used to say…tune in tomorrow to the same Bat-Time and same Bat-channel!
Take time today to ask someone you don’t know how they’re doing and then be prepared to listen. It will bless them that you care!
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